The next morning with our seven sails set and billowing ahead of us, we motor sailed from Aljui Bay. The yacht headed westwards towards the island of Piayemo also marked on charts as Pianemo and on others as Penemu. Part of the National Park, this deep water anchorage is well worth visiting. But like us, visit early in the day, before crowds arrive in speed boats from the larger islands.
The attraction here is the easy access stairway of some 300 or so steps up to the fabulous view. At the top a viewing platform overlooks a star shaped lagoon known locally as Bintang (meaning Star) lagoon.
While it can not match the tranquility of Wayag, the vista from the top, across the pond like waters, is breathtakingly views. Though seeing a star shape was a bit of a stretch! Still it is so beautiful who cares.
The best feature of this lagoon are the majestic karsts, all topped with rich tropical vegetation. Because it is so sheltered it’s a great place for kayaking and paddle boarding.
Swimming in the Lagoon
We chose to venture deep into the lagoon using the tender and found an island with a narrow entrance into another lagoon. Inside that, another island with yet another lagoon. We ventured inside what can only be described as a lagoon within a lagoon within a lagoon.
How special is that? Needless to say, it was one of those moments where sitting inside a tender was simply not good enough. Tops discarded, one by one the guests jumped into the warm, tropical waters. Good job we all had our swim suits under our clothes. We swam round a small island which sadly did not yet have its own lagoon.